The days following my breakdown in front of Bruno, I started to feel like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I no longer felt like I was sinking into the ground every time he crossed my mind, which he was now starting to do much more often. I took Julio to the Madrigal's house a couple times and while he played with Antonio and some of the other Madrigals, I'd sit with Bruno and tell him some of the things he missed in the 10 years he was gone. I told him a little of everything, from my papa trying to cook for my mother on their anniversary to how I learned out to put out a soup fire that same day. I told him about Gloria growing up and how much of a shock my mother was when she found out she was pregnant with Julio. I would tell him everything he wanted to know and he'd just sit and listen to me talk.

I also found out a few things about him as well, though he was much more reserved about sharing his details. He told me about life in the walls, sneaking out to get food on the occasion, how he became friends with the rats, and how he'd keep himself entertained. A few times he offered to show me how he could tell his rats apart, but I wasn't ready to get up close and personal with them yet so I told him I'd like to stay and keep an eye on Julio first.

Still, even though I'd take Julio to the Madrigals for him to play with Antonio, we would leave a few minutes before dinner started. While I didn't mind sitting down to eat with them, I was worried the conversation would turn to my papa and I'd get angry again. I understood they weren't the biggest fans of my father but having the nerve to talk about him in front of his own kid is something I couldn't wrap head around. While not everything I've ever said about my father has been in his favor, I've only said the negative things to Gloria or my mother and never to anyone outside of the house.

But even with this, I also couldn't help but think about what they said. I don't know if it was because I didn't stick around long enough to hear anything, but everything they said was about my father. They never mentioned my mother, uncles, aunts, no one else. Just my father. This thought stuck in my head the longest since whenever my father would rant about the Madrigals, all of them would be talked about. He would talk about how loud Felix was after celebrating a birthday, how long it took Julieta to buy ingredients at stores, how clumsy Luisa was when she would move buildings, and many other complaints. I started to wonder if what Mirabel said before was true and if this feud really wasn't as two-sided as I thought it was.

"Are they coming, Rosa?" Julio asked, swinging his little legs on the bench beside me.

"They should be, Julio." I replied. "I haven't heard anything otherwise." My brother and I were supposed to be meeting Antonio and Mirabel today for the boys' usual playdate, but they were running a little later than usual. Normally they were no more than 5 minutes late, but now almost half an hour had passed and still no sign of either of them.

"I'm sure one of them got caught up with something in town." I said, putting my arm around my brother and pulling him closer towards me. "Or maybe Antonio is trying to find the right animal for you to play with."

I gave my brother a light poke in his stomach as I could see he was getting a little wary. I gave me a tiny laugh back. Before I could say something back, I heard a tiny shout in front of us and saw Antonio and a toucan running up to us. Julio immediately jumped off the bench to greet his friend. Behind Antonio, I saw some black curls make its away above the hill followed by a green ruana.

"Bruno?" I cocked my head before walking over to him. I couldn't help but feel a small smile come onto my face. "What are you doing here? Is Mirabel ok?"

"She's fine, perfectly fine." Bruno replied, adjusting his ruana slightly. "I just thought it would be fun for me to bring Antonio today. Let Mirabel have a day to herself." I couldn't help but notice Bruno was slightly squinting in the sunlight. There's no doubt that after years of living in walls, it would take a while for his eyes to readjust to this much light so I decided to have him sit in a somewhat shadier spot in the grass to help his eyes.

I saw him open his mouth to say something, but before he got the chance to I quickly asked him a question that had been on my mind for a while now. "Bruno, how much did you hear while you were living in the walls?"

Bruno scrunched his eyebrows together and though trying to remember what he could. "A little of everything I guess." He shrugged. "Some things were muffled. But I also tried to sleep during the day to keep from making too much noise myself and stayed up at night-"

"Did you ever hear Alma or the others talking about my family?" I quickly asked.

Bruno thought about this for a few seconds before shaking this head. "Not so much your family, but your father. Sometimes when I was awake, every few weeks I would hear about him. Mostly from my mother and Pepa."

I slowly nodded my head and let out a tiny "Hm."

"Why?" Bruno asked, scooting closer towards me.

"Well…" I started, taking in a deep breath. "While you were giving Julio his fortunes, I stayed with everyone else. The conversation was light at first, but then they started talking about my papa and the day he went to their house after you disappeared. But, they only had things to say about my him. Not Gloria, or my mama, just papa. And Mirabel mentioned before about this feud being more one-sided than I thought it was."

"What did you father say when he went to their house?" Bruno asked and I just shrugged.

"No idea." I replied, looking towards him. "He told me and everyone else to stay at the house and he left for the Madrigals. Time passed, and he comes back home fuming about you and the shame the Madrigals have brought to his family."

At this, Bruno looked away from me and put his head down and his curls covered his face. I could tell he still felt bad about that night, despite me telling him almost every day now I had forgiven him for it. But now I was starting to wonder if he was having a hard time forgiving himself for that night.

"Bru-" I started before I heard a loud scream followed by loud cries. Bruno's head quickly shot and mine turned to where my brother was. All it took was me to see him lying on the ground before I started running as fast as I could towards him and bending down over him. He was laying on his side with one hand over the other.

"He tried to climb that tree," Antonio said, pointing towards a tree with a broken limb. "But then he fell."

I could hear my brother sniffling as he held his hand with the other.

"Hey, hey I'm here, I'm here." I whispered, slowly lifting my brother up to a sitting position. He had tears falling down his cheeks and his eyes were starting to puff up. "Can I see your hand?"

Julio shook his head and pulled it closer to him as more tears started to fall. I leaned in to give my brother a tiny kiss on his forehead. "Did a tree hurt my little brother?" Julio nodded his head. "Which tree? I wanna give it a nice little talking to." Julio pointed towards the tree closest to him and I walked over to it, crossing my arms.

"You think you're funny?" I asked. "Hurting my brother. How's this for funny?" I gave the tree's trunk a light kick and picked up a tiny rock to throw at it. I heard Julio let out a tiny laugh as I threw more rocks at it.

"I think it's learned a good lesson." I said, walking back towards my brother. At this point. Bruno had also walked over to us and was holding Antonio.

While he was still crying, the tears had slowed down and his eyes weren't as red. I sat back down in front of my brother and asked if I could see his hand again. This time, he placed his injured hand in mine and I could see scratches where it seemed he tried to catch himself but just scrapped his hand across the bark.

"Wow, you're handling this a lot better than I would big man." I said, placing my other hand on top of his. "But, you gotta show the pain you're not scared of it in the slightest, and you're a tough man."

I heard Bruno whisper something to Antonio that made him giggle before I moved a little bit further back and let go of Julio's hand.

"Alright, first of all you need to show this cut how strong you are. I need to see your biggest, strongest muscles. Can you do this for me?" I spread my arms out and flexed the (few) muscles I had. Julio quickly followed my lead and started straining himself to flex is arms and legs. "That's what I'm talking about!" I smiled as Julio started getting into different poses to show off more of his "muscles". "Perfect!" I laughed. "Now, pain doesn't like loud noises, so I need you to let out the biggest war cry you can give me. Ready…go!"

At this, Bruno, Antonio, and I all covered out ears as Julio let out a loud scream and hitting his chest like he was Tarzan. "Great, great Julio!" I quickly yelled. "Now, this next part is possibly the most important of all. Are you ready for it?" Julio started nodding his head and I gave him a skeptical look. "I don't know Julio, it's-"

"I'm ready!" he yelled, jumping up and down.

"Alright. The pain already knows your loud and strong, but now you gotta show it how tough you are." At this, I opened my arms as wide as I could. "Now, you need to give me your biggest, toughest, strongest hug to really scare the pain away. Can-" Before I could finish Julio had his arms wrapped tightly around me and was hugging me as tight as he could. I must admit it too, I felt like I was starting to lose my breath the longer he hung on. Soon, Julio let go and I saw a bright, smiling kid looking back at me.

"Can you feel the pain anymore?" I asked and Julio shook his head.

"Nope!" he gleamed.

"Fantastic! Now go play but be careful this time." At this, Antonio let go of Bruno and started racing after Julio. I watched them go back to playing as Bruno sat back down beside me.

"You have a great way with kids." He smiled. "Usually if Antonio is hurt, they give him a snack from Julieta's pantry and he's back to playing."

"Julio's my whole world." I said, scooting a little closer to Bruno. "He came just as mama and papa were getting up in age so they don't have much energy to run after him. Gloria is a teenager and still young, so I don't want her to lose out on fun so I like to take care of Julio when I can."

Bruno nodded his head and watched the boys play. There was silence between us for a minute before he broke it. "How many kids did you want to have?"

I looked at Bruno out of the corner of my eye and gave him a mischievous smile. "10."

At this, it seemed like Bruno took in too much air as he started coughing and trying to get something out of his throat. I gave him a couple pats on his back as he started coughing less, trying not to laugh at the man's pain.

"Thank you." He said, letting out one last cough. At this, I let out the laugh I had been holding in and gave Bruno a quick poke at this jaw.

"No, no. Not 10." I smiled. "I honestly can't say. I wanted them at one time, but then the suitors stopped coming and then Julio came along. But I get asked all the time if he's my son so, he might as well be my kid."

Some red came on Bruno's face as he nodded his head. Both of us let the boys play for a little while longer before gathering them up and getting ready to go back home. Before saying our goodbyes, I pulled Bruno in for a quick hug and he gave me a light one back, still probably unsure about how much I could handle after Julio's hug.